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LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – The Washington Redskins announced today that they have named Nate Kaczor (KAT-sir) as Special Teams Coordinator.

Kaczor is entering his 12th NFL season after spending the last three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Prior to joining Tampa Bay, Kaczor has spent his NFL career in various coaching capacities with the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Before assuming the role of special teams coordinator with the Buccaneers in 2016, he was the special teams coordinator with the Titans' (2013-15) and assisted with the Jaguars' special teams unit (2008-11).

"We are excited to have Nate join our staff. We have had the opportunity to face his special teams play during his time at Tampa Bay and respected competing against him," said Jay Gruden, Washington Redskins Head Coach. "He is a competitor and we have noticed and admired the intensity his units have played with through the course of his time as a special teams coordinator and assistant coach in the NFL."

In his first year with Tampa Bay, Kaczor worked with punter Bryan Anger, who set Buccaneers records for both punts inside the 20 (37) and net punting average (42.7), with both of those ranking in the top five in the NFL in 2016. Anger and Josh Robinson were key members of a punt coverage unit that ranked fourth in the NFL in punt return average allowed, limiting opponents to just 5.3 yards per punt return. Robinson led Tampa Bay with 12 solo special teams tackles, tied for the third-most in the NFL that season

Kaczor joined Tampa Bay after spending four seasons with the Tennessee Titans, the final three as the team's special teams coordinator (2013-15) after being hired as the assistant offensive line coach in his first season (2012). In 2015, the Titans tied for the NFL lead in special teams takeaways, while in 2013 Kaczor’s unit ranked third in the league in opponent punt return average and eighth in kickoff return average.

In three seasons under Kaczor, Titans punter Brett Kern tied for the third-most punts inside the 20 (94) in the NFL. In 2015, despite punting 88 times, Kern saw only one touchback on the year. In 2014, Kern posted a net average of 40.8, a career best and a Titans franchise record. Kaczor also worked with kicker Ryan Succop, who set a career high in field goal percentage in 2015 (87.5), surpassing the career best he had established the season before.

Kaczor entered the NFL as an assistant special teams coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2008-11. During those four years, Jacksonville had one of the league’s top special teams coverage units, allowing the lowest punt return average in the NFL (6.5 avg.) and the eighth-lowest kickoff return average (21.8 avg.). In each of Kaczor’s final two seasons, Montell Owens earned Pro Bowl recognition as a special teams player.

Prior to joining the NFL, Kaczor spent 17 years coaching in college, the final two working as offensive coordinator (2007) and tight ends coach (2006) at Louisiana-Monroe. In his only season as offensive coordinator, the team ranked second in the Sun Belt Conference in rushing offense and averaged its most points scored since 1993.

Before his time at Louisiana-Monroe, Kaczor spent two seasons (2004-05) as the co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach at Idaho and four seasons as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Nebraska-Kearney (2000-03). Kaczor began his coaching career as an offensive assistant at his alma mater, Utah State, working as an offensive assistant for nine seasons (1991-99), helping the team win three conference championships.

A center at Utah State, Kaczor was a team captain and earned all-conference honors in 1989.

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Question 1: why was he available? Probably because he’s not good at his job. But who really knows.

statement: No good coach in their right mind would come to this situation with the HC entering year 6 coming off of 3 non-playoff years, 2 years left on his deal (which really means that he’ll either be extended or fired after this season because you don’t let any coach go into a lame duck season), no QB to speak of and not a lot of salary cap room to play with if they had ANY other option. Because if this year goes badly, and coaches are smart enough to know given the situation that’s fairly likely no matter how good they do individually, the whole crew might be thrown out on its ear.

So question 2? Why did this guy come here?

Answer: he had no other options.

Its just another clear indication Dan had no idea what he was getting when he decided to stay pat with Bruce and Jay. The unintended consequences were obvious to every year except him.

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When was the last time that the Redskins hired a primary coach or coordinator on the basis that they were clearly the best available candidate based on merit? Virtually every Redskins hire requires the fan base to trust that somehow the front office knows best that this candidate is a good fit despite the track record indicating otherwise.

Sure, it is apparent that given Jay’s near lame duck status, that the Redskins won’t be a desirable landing spot for many competent coaches. However, the fact is that the Redskins operate on this same counter-antalytical hiring basis even when they do have leverage (see: hiring of Barry, Manusky, promoting Cavanaugh over a top OC etc...).

As another poster said, while other rising teams seem to be targeting up-and-coming coaches from proven franchises as their new hires, the Redskins are always hiring someone either on the basis of personal relationships or on the premise that they know better than the empirical evidence to the contrary why the candidate is the best hire.

There sinply is no way for this franchise to succeed in any type of sustained way until a top-down housecleaning of this front office occurs, starting with Bruce Allen being replaced by an autonomous President of Football Operations or GM.

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Of course, he will given a chance. I can;t speak for anyone else, but I always root for people coming to this team to have success. I would be absolutely thrilled if he came in and put the STs in the top 5 every year. What a positive impact to the overall team that would have. It would also mean the back half of the roster is pretty stout. To that end, some of his ranking could absolutely be due to poor rosters. Having said that, he has 6 yrs of being STs coordinator. Of those, his teams have never been above 20th in ranking. His 2 most recent seasons he was 29th.

But's also very fair to look at his performance in the job he is being hired for and be very skeptical. Unlike stocks, past performance an very good indicator of future performance.

In no way am I comparing the two but Belichick had one winning season when he was head coach of the Browns and look at him now. My point is lets see what he does with special teams before dumping on the guy.

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My point is lets see what he does with special teams before dumping on the guy.

So very true, But it's a good idea to also remember that a ST roster is usually composed of your 2nd and 3rd tier guys. Our injury history and thus constant roster turnover means that he will be forced to cook with new and less talented ingredients every week. If you can't have a great ST roster, then you better compensate for it by having a great ST coach.